Newbie question - is 1% too high an estimate for affiliate sales?

[BitShift]

Is figuring 1% of(unique) visitor traffic as potential customers who would click on a given affiliate advertisement, too high? What kind of percentage is "typical" if there is such a thing these days.

[BitShift]

Also, can you consider total number of page views in this estimate, or should you stick with unique visitor traffic? Im trying to get a *rough* idea of what advertising revenue might be, given the few affiliate programs I sign up with.

[Philosopher]

That would be your CTR (click-thru rate) and it can vary WIDELY depending on the type of site and how the ads are positioned.

Your click-thru rate could be much lower than 1% or much higher.

[BitShift]

Ok, I think click through rate is only dealing with clicks, whereas it doesnt translate into actual sales. That is whats referred to as the conversion rate, correct?

[Philosopher]

correct...However you mentioned in your original post "potential customers who would click on an advertisement".

That's different than those that would click on an advertisement and then proceed all the way through to a purchase hence my original reply.

If you are wanting to know what percentage of people will hit your site, follow your aff. link to the merchant then make a purchase, that is almost impossible to estimate.

It would depend on the product being sold, is it a low-end product, high end product? A lead-capture site? What type of site do you have? Is it a review site? Simply a content site?

There are a ton of factors involved.

[edited by: Philosopher at 8:32 pm (utc) on May 11, 2009]

[BitShift]

I have built a site that is primarily a business directory for an area spanning 3 counties. The site offers coupons that the business users can create and manage themselves, along with a "business page". So, the site is not really specific to a niche product category or industry, but is location specific.

[BitShift]

Should one consider page views or unique visitors when attempting to estimate a click-thru rate? For example, the google site profile for webmasterworld
[google.com...]

[stevebaik]

You should use page views when calculating click-through rates. It's how Google does it.